Part 7: You Imbecile. You Fucking Moron.

We've gotten the other three crystals, time to go back to Giott and see what hamfisted way we lose the last crystal.



How did it go?
We have the other three crystals and stopped Golbez's fiends from taking them.
Splendid! They will be safe here in our fortified castle.



Cid!



Cid showing up is always a good time.

They'll have a hard time getting through the newly upgraded tanks, and I also figured out a way to use the power of the Bolt crystal to generate an electrical field that prevents warp spells!



What was that?
I didn't hear anything...
Shh! Someone is sneaking around...



Behind that wall!
That's the way to the crystal!
Come on, let's go!



Not so fast! Turns out the Dwarven Castle's getting bombarded all of a sudden.

You can't actually see it you'll just have to take my word on this.

The Red Wings!
I guess we're about to see just how well defended this castle is...



Right!
You got it!

I do like how this hack makes Rosa into much more of a badass who gets shit done. It's kinda how she started out in the original game, but then you rescue her and she's kinda just there the rest of the game besides the Big Whale scene, and then she does nothing in the sequel. Here, she has no problems sniping motherfuckers like flies.



Cecil!





Aww.



Meanwhile...



Pilot, take us closer. I want to be within warp range.
But master... How can we warp through that electrical field?



Fear not, master. I'll have that field down in a jiffy!
You'd better...

Back to the party.



Just a doll...
It's one of Luca's.



The doll moved on its own!?
It took the crystal!
Someone must be controlling it!
Either way, we have to get the crystal back in place before Golbez decides to warp in here!





This fight is pretty much filler. Calbrena only has a weak physical and rarely attacks. No fancy gimmicks here.







Step aside.
Never!
Very well...





Great going, guys.

Now, Kain, get the crystal!
With pleasure...





Seriously, way to fail at your jobs again. Cecil really is the most incompetent hero.



Kain... You...





That's right, Kain just betrayed Golbez. Hey, Kain's gotta betray someone, right?





Not until you hand over that crystal!





This is the final fiend, and she's a tough one.





The issues are that she only does three things. A powerful physical attack that could potentially one-shot some people, a multi-target Bolt3 that does decent damage to the party, and Magnet, which inflicts Stop. She's also very fast at doing these things, so much so that it'll be difficult to keep up with healing, especially with a character Stopped and Kain having to play Jump duty.

Also, look how damn tanky Kain is. Guy's close to 2000HP when Edge hasn't even hit four digits. And yet he's the guy who Jumps...



Drain is a pretty damn solid spell behind Palom's stats. It's definitely better than the tier-2 elemental spells.





It took me three attempts before I could wear her down.





Looks like my cover is blown for good.
And we're down to one crystal...what now?



Golbez can't use the portal without all eight crystals. As long as we still have this one hope is not lost. We can still mount one last counter-offensive and try to get the rest back.
Agreed. Let's talk to the King.

-----



Our only hope left is to attack the tower.
You can count on us for any support you need!
Thank you, your majesty.



"I suggest we go to Golbez's house and leave the crystal at his front door. We all know what's going to happen anyway, let's at least skip the bullshit and get drunk instead."



There's also the Red Wings to worry about...
Thanks to Rosa's sharpshooting skills, the airship force has been weakened quite a bit.
In that case, now is the time to strike!
We take them out while they're still weak...
...before they have a chance to regroup!
We'll use the tanks in a full frontal assault on the tower, meanwhile a few of us will enter, get the crystals, and leave. Kain, you're familiar with the layout of the tower. Edge, your Ninja skills will also come in handy for this mission. Palon and Porom, we'll probably need your magic. Cid and Rosa, since you did so well against the airships earlier, perhaps you can lead the tank assault.
No problem!
We'll show 'em who's boss!





Let's show Golbez who he's dealing with!



So, are you going to keep the crystal here, or hide it somewhere, or...oh, you're taking the Bolt Crystal with you? To the Tower that Golbez resides in and has his many minions wandering about in? OK, yeah, sure, you're the genius tactician here, Cecil. Because all your plans have worked out well so far.

Not knocking the hack's writing here because the original was equally as damn stupid. As I've said plenty of times and will probably say plenty more, Cecil really is incompetent at being a hero.





Kain has some decent gear he comes with. It's also good to note that he can equip axes, though I opt to buy him a Blizzard spear from Tomra since I'm gonna have him constantly Jump from the back row.



To the Tower of Babil!



The layout for the underground section is unchanged...for the most part.



Tied for most defensive light armor, it also boosts Agility and Wisdom by 5. Feels like it's custom made for someone, but I wonder who.



The Armlet apparently protects against any enemy with a specific "type" (like Undead, Dragon, Zombie, etc.) and throws in 10 Vitality on top of that. It makes sense to give it to our healer.



The enemies aren't really anything special, other than confusing BlackCats to Bluster themselves to death.



+3 Agility and second-best defensive stats of any hat. Otherwise, meh.





Four chests with Alert enemies. They still summon random trash until defeated.



This time they summon four pieces of the Genji equipment. None of them give any bonuses or anything, they're simply the most defensive gear you can get at this stage of the game.



Bolt-elemental and a pretty solid upgrade. At this point we're not really running into enemies weak to Holy, so Edge starts rocking this and the Mage Masher.



Wrecks Ogres. A decent bit better than the Blizzard Lance, but again, I'd Rather Jump.



Edge picks up Bolt2 along the way.



At some point I get distracted and drunk for awhile, then when I came back I simply ran from every battle since these random encounters can take awhile.







If we reach the area where we originally meet Lugae, we instead get to progress further on. First, the underground area of the tower where in the original we fell through a trap door and ended up discovering the Falcon.



And eventually we get to the overworld section that you originally enter from Eblan Cave. Makes sense to combine all of these parts.



Still four Mad Ogres, but only an Elixir here.



Also this odd chest that gives a ton of GP still does the same thing in this hack.



Instead of Edge's parents, we meet Lugae here.



You can't tell me what to do anymore, you backstabber! Golbez wants me to stop you from going any further, so that's what I'm gonna do! Balnab! Get them!





Same antics as before.







This happens. I guess things get ugly like the original if you beat up Balnab.



Instead I beat up Lugae.





That certainly made this fight simpler.







Lugae here is...the exact same as he was in the original game. No new moves or anything.



Thus I'm skipping ahead to where he dies.



And Palom finally picks up Bio! Sadly Porom died during a random during this dungeon and thus got desynced from Palom EXP-wise.



Alright, let's do this.





oh hi golbez





not gonna say hello or anything, just gonna get right to fighting us, huh. ok, that's cool, no big.







Meal time, Shadow!





So remember when this happened in the original? And then suddenly adult Rydia jumped in to save the day?



That's not happening today.





Awkwardly enough Kain dodged the Hold Gas thanks to Jump, much like you can do in the original version of this fight. Except here Golbez isn't putting up with your smug exploit bullshit and just spams Globe199 until you die like you're supposed to.



Seriously, guys, great fucking job.





-----



Cecil!



The tower expelled you. Cid flew the Red Dwarf up to save you.
Thanks, Cid!
I haven't lost my touch yet!
And now the tower is protected by some kind of shield. We can't damage or enter it.
Does that mean we're stuck here in the underworld?
Of course not! I attached a drill to the Red Dwarf! We can drill up through the northeast mountain range. Then we'll be able to travel back and forth at will!
Then there's no time to waste. Golbez has certainly made his way to the moon already. We need to regroup, find our friends, and figure out a way to get to the moon ourselves.

I mean, don't you know where all your friends are at this point? Edward and Tellah are in Troia, Rydia's in the Feymarch, and Yang's with the Eblan troops. You don't really have any other friends, Cecil.



Anyway who cares because we got a giant fucking drill in our airship and next time we're gonna use that fucking son of a bitch YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.